Philly Window Washers Predict Fall - UK Window Cleaner In Explosion

Steve Cramer, who has been working as a window washer across the street, said the demolition crew left 30 feet of a dividing wall up with no braces and it compromised the integrity of the building. “We’ve been calling it for the past week — it’s going to fall, it’s going to fall,” his co-worker Dan Gillis said.

Rescue workers were digging through rubble Thursday for any additional victims who may have been trapped when a building under demolition collapsed onto a neighboring thrift store, killing six people and injuring 14, including one who was pulled from the debris nearly 13 hours later. Philadelphia workers were using buckets and their bare hands to move bricks and rubble in a search-and-rescue operation with no end immediately in sight. “We’re going to keep searching until we’re absolutely sure no one else is there,” battalion fire chief Charles Lupre said shortly before dawn. He said there were no reports of anyone missing, but there was always the chance that someone was inside who wasn’t reported missing.

It was unclear what role the demolition work might have played in the collapse, but the accident raised questions about how closely the highly visible spot on Market Street, one of Philadelphia’s signature boulevards, was being monitored, particularly amid word of the demolition contractor’s many legal and financial troubles. For weeks, people working nearby had watched with growing concern as a crew took down the vacant four-story building next to a Salvation Army thrift store at the edge of downtown.

A roofer atop another building didn’t think the operation looked safe. A pair of window washers across the street spotted an unbraced, 30-foot section of wall and predicted among themselves the whole building would simply fall down. Steve Cramer, who has been working as a window washer across the street, said the demolition crew left 30 feet of a dividing wall up with no braces and it compromised the integrity of the building. “We’ve been calling it for the past week — it’s going to fall, it’s going to fall,” his co-worker Dan Gillis said.

Mr Jesus' terraced house in Tinsley was completely destroyed by the explosion and subsequent fire. was thrown across the street and burnt when his Sheffield house was destroyed by a suspected gas explosion last week.

‘I was burning alive’: Window cleaner, 36, who lost everything in a gas blast says an angel rescued him from the rubble.

• Agostinho Jesus, 36, was thrown across his Sheffield street in the explosion
• Father-of-one suffered burns to his hands and head but says his survival is 'a miracle'
• Firefighters believe the blast that destroyed his £60,000 home was caused by a gas leak

A window cleaner has told how he was thrown across the street after his house exploded as he left for work. Agostinho Jesus, 36, was injured when a gas explosion ripped through the terraced property, throwing him and the entire front of his house across the street last Wednesday morning. The Portuguese father of one suffered burns to his head and hands, and his entire house in the Sheffield suburb of Tinsley was destroyed.

Mr Jesus said his house exploded when he switched off the lights as he prepared to leave for work.

Mr Jesus, who moved to the UK 16 years ago, said that after he flicked the light switch there was 'a massive bang' and he was thrown six feet away from his house. He said: 'I was basically thrown away from my house along with the front wall. 'I was on the ground surrounded by fire and the first thing I thought I was burning alive.'

Father-of-one Jesus Agostinho suffered burns to his hands and head in the blast that destroyed his home.

He added: 'Obviously I was burning alive but then I felt someone grab me by my arms and they pulled me into the other side of the road and sat me down. 'As I was being lifted all I could see were white clothes but and then when I looked around I couldn't see a soul on the street. 'To me it was angel, he saved me.  I do believe in God and am a very strong Catholic myself - to me I do believe it was someone sent from God to save me, it wasn't my time.'

Mr Jesus' £60,000 mid-terrace house was left a pile of burning rubble after the explosion which left a woman and two children in nearby properties suffering from smoke inhalation.  Residents were evacuated and firefighters set up a 500ft cordon around the scene after the 9am blast. He said: 'Basically the explosion burnt all my face, it burnt all my hair off my head, and my ears and neck are burnt.'

Mr Jesus' £60,000 terraced house, which he owned outright and had lived in for a year, was not insured.

The biggest problem the self-employed window-cleaner faces is the fact that his house, which he owned outright, was not insured. Mr Jesus' work van which was parked outside the house was also destroyed. 'I lost everything, all my belongings, apart from the clothes I was wearing and they were cut off me at the hospital,' he said.

Mr Jesus, left with fiancee Monica Zywicka, 40, has been living with her since his house was blown apart.

'I am really hoping that somebody might come forward and try to help, I'm not the kind of person that like to ask for anything but my whole life was in that house.' He is now living with his fiancee, Miss Zywicka, and she has bought him clothes. The mid-terrace property in Sheffield was destroyed in the blast and the two adjoining houses badly damaged. Police say they have not yet ruled out criminal activity.